1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to balance compensating golf grips and golf clubs incorporating the balance compensating golf grip.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The game of golf requires, among other things, the use of golf clubs to strike the golf ball.
Golf clubs are formed by the head, or striking element, of the club, intended to impact the golf ball. The head can take many shapes and be formed of differing materials, thereby causing the head to have differing weights. The head is connected to a shaft for imparting the swing to the head. The shafts themselves may also be formed of differing materials, such as wood, metal, and composites such as graphite fiber filled polymer. The length of the shafts are also variable to the player, depending on height and physical ability of the player. All these variations introduce balance variability to the club and head combination.
At the end of the shaft opposite the head is the golf grip. The grip is intended to be grasped by the golfer in order to swing the club. The present rules of golf require that the grip not contain any contour that would assist in placement of the golfer's hands on the grip (an exception is made for the putter). Therefore, most existing golf grips are circular in cross-section and concentric with the axis of the shaft, (though the cross-section generally diminishes in size from the end of the grip in a direction towards the exposed portion of the shaft).
Until the present invention, there has not been taken into account the fact that the imbalance caused by the variabilities in the club head and shaft combination could be counterbalanced by the golf grip, and the present invention discloses various ways in which the golf grip can be modified to compensate for this imbalance.